August 20, 2006

Swims - yes swims - like an eagle!

What started as a very casual, "let's get out of the house" expedition, turned into the most memorable birding event of our lives.

It was 4 pm on a Sunday and I was feeling kind of hum-drum, so I suggested to Bren we do some shore birding. She was recovering from an overnight trip to Vermont and at first didn’t want to go, but as I fiddled around delaying my departure she decided to join me. On a whim, as we sat in the driveway, I suggested we could go see if we could find the bald eagles that, according to a recent newspaper article, were nesting on North Watuppa Pond. "Sure," she said, so we headed north. Watuppa is the water supply for the City of Fall River so as far as I know there's only one small strip of causeway that gives a good view of the pond and it's at the north end. There's no boating, fishing, swimming, etc. allowed.

So in about 25 minutes we pulled up on the causeway ( the circle marked "1" on the second map) and began scanning with our glasses. Almost immediately we saw a bird above the tree line of a distant shore that looked awfully big and seemed to have the flat-winged glide of an eagle! Then as I continued to scan I picked up a white head in a distant pine tree off on the same eastern shore. (The circle marked "2" on the second map.) I was sure it was a bald eagle. Then I saw its white tail as well. I was using the 15X45 IS Canon's and Bren was using much smaller glasses of just 8X, but she found him too.

We were thrilled. Neither of us have seen more than a couple of eagles in the wild in our lives, so just seeing this one off in the distance was great.

As we both watched the eagle in the pine tree – he was maybe two-thirds up from the water – no nest in sight – a second eagle suddenly came into view. This one was closer, maybe 10-feet above the water, and flying from right to left. We saw he was approaching a seagull and I murmured something like "bet he steals that gull's fish."

Wrong. The target was the gull and he got it in the blink of an eye. We both shuddered. Yes, this is nature. There's nothing wrong here. Eagles have to eat too. But neither of us enjoys seeing one animal kill another animal. Still, we watched as the eagle floated on top of the water, the seagull underneath it. ( See the circle marked "3" on the second map.) About a minute passed – it's hard to say exactly how long – and then he took off, gull in his talons. But he hardly got above the water with his load than he plopped back down in.

This time it didn’t look like he was going to get out. I had heard that young osprey sometimes catch a fish that is too large for them, but their talons lock in, they can’t let go, and they end up drowning. Was this what we were about to see?

Then the most incredible thing happened. The eagle – a mature bird at least four years old with white head and white tail, started swimming. I kid you not. There was a small chop on the water and wind blowing that slapped at him. But he held his head out of the water, as well as his white tail, and we could see him rowing – yes, rowing is the best way to describe it – with his wings. It seemed like an act of desperation, but experienced birders perhaps see this all the time. I don’t know. In any event, from our stand point we seriously wondered whether we were going to witness the demise of both the prey and predator. He was in the middle of the pond at a point where it is about 2,000 feet across. The nearest shore was perhaps 600 feet away. It's hard to be sure, but reviewing the maps afterwards this is our best guess. That's where the tree was that held the other adult eagle – who must have witnessed this, but was doing nothing. He just sat and watched. (Well he or she – we don’t know how to tell the difference.)

But our eagle wasn't heading for that closer shore. He (she?) was striking out in the other direction. Not straight into the wind, but off towards a quite distant shore to the west with the wind coming from the outh west. Was she confused? To our surprise, she made steady progress. At first I thought she wa barely treading water, But then I noticed the background changing. Very fast, really. So we eventually decided she knew what she was doing, though we continued to wonder out loud if she could make it. Then, ahead of her, after what seemed like a longer time thanit was, we spotted a rock. "Bet she's heading for that!"

And indeed she was. There actually was a shallow area there, still quite far out in the pond, with two or three rocks and some reed visible, and after a swim of perhaps 10 minutes and covering about 1,000 feet, the eagle clamored up on the rock, dragging its prey behind it. (See yellow dot marked "4.") I believe she had the gull in a just her left talon, though it was on the down slope of the rock facing away from us, so was difficult to be sure.

We breathed a collective sigh of relief, then watched as the feathers started flying. That went on for another 30 minutes or so, then she took off, some portion of the prey still in her talons, and headed towards the western side of the pond where we presume the nest is. She was out of view pretty quickly,

And the other adult? He stayed in the tree. We decided it must have been a male, since men enjoy watching women prepare dinner ;-) Incidentally, other gulls came by apparently investigating this event and it looked like a couple might try to harass the eagle as it swam, but they didn't get too close. As it ate its prey, a flock of about 20 gulls floated on the water between the two eagles, either unaware, or unbothered by the recent events.

But in all seriousness – seeing two eagles would have made this a red-letter birding day. Seeing an eagle catch a gull would have upped it a notch, certainly making it nearly as memorable as the day we saw eight eagles and over 2,000 broadwings from Mount Watatic. But watching that eagle swim all that distance with its prey – that put this event off the charts and what a delight it was to share it with each other!

Received several comments from folks - including birders - who felt this was indeed unusual. One, who spent serious time watching eagles in Alaska where they are quite common, said she never saw anything like this. But she shared it with a friend who wrote back to her:

VERY cool story....very cool. I was struck by his comment/query that perhaps this was not something out of the usual for habitual birders. So, out of curiousity (you know how curious I am). I Googled "swimming bald eagle" and came up with these sites. The first has PHOTOS of an eagle swimming much as Greg's story recounts.

A. Great question. Absolutely. They are very good swimmers, and I've even seen older nestlings who can't fly yet swim. It's not uncommon for an eagle to "misjudge" and latch into a fish too heavy/large for it to fly with, so they then may swim quite a distance to shore (wouldn't want to let go of lunch now would we), drag the fish up on shore and then eat it.

So, thanks for an interesting time--reading Greg's captivating account and then searching for info on something that I didn't know......they SWIM (and the photos in the first website are very cool too).

March 06, 2006

Camouflage - it's all the rage - for some ;-)

Had another one of those wonderful bird walks in Westport this morning with people who can hear and know what they're hearing. I can't do either. Then again, these folks (Mike Sylvia, Mike Boucher, Walt and Mary Bender) are all more experienced birders than I. The two Mikes are in a league all their own. so it was a great learning experience for me. But one of my best lessons came from the little guy pictured below. Boy does he (she?) know camouflage! He's a hermit thrush and I think the sequence of pictures says it all - but pay particular attention to the last close-up. Look at how the color of his tail matches the color of the leaf behind it and how so many other parts of him match his surroundings so well. Oh - for ID purposes note the white eye ring , and tail color. (Click any image to enlarge.)

Of course, some people are just the opposite - they don't wnt to blend in, they want to standout. One of the most unusual colors in nature is blue, and these guys sure know how to wear it and show it off - and, of course, they are bluebirds,

Hey! Showing off is showing off, but why are you standing on one foot?

December 18, 2005

Dancing with dophins

Noting the current civil unrest in Sydney - which has been downright ugly - Dom sent along this letter to the editor about Maroubra, three beaches down from where he and Daphne live and one of the beaches involved in ugly scenes. The experience reported is a far cry from the civil strife and fascinating in itself.

The recent anger at Sydney beaches was reported by the world media. Though my best day at Maroubra didn't get a play on the radio. It was late November 2005, an hour off sunset, hot and steamy. Good time for a surf. The beach was crowded, parking was difficult, and nobody made eye contact. I felt alone among strangers.

The seawater was refreshing. I paddled out and caught a few waves. Eavesdropped on a couple whining about hard-day-at-work and traffic-jams-getting-worse. A mother on shore screamed at a child to get-moving-or-else. Mostly it was quiet. The sea was smooth and glassy. Then suddenly a single dolphin leapt out of the ocean, high into the sky, belly white and twisting as it pulled off an amazing backflip. Then another! A huge pod of dolphins started surfing the waves and ending their rides with acrobatic flips in the air. Better than Sea World. At least 50 dolphins - big, healthy, well-fed, clucking and totally happy.

The joy was contagious. People started hooting, cheering our aquatic mammalian cousins. I noticed strangers made eye contact, conversations began, sudden realisations, they had shared the same beach for years. I was surrounded by pure happiness. I made new friends, reawakened old acquaintances, shared waves and even gave them away. In 42 years it was my best day at the beach.

Later, I did some research and discovered the theory of biophilia; how human health and wellbeing are dependent on good relationships with the natural environment. Patients suffering from depression, swimming with dolphins and reporting lasting improvement. Is this a natural, drug-free cure for depression and anger? The secret to real happiness? Perhaps more people in Sydney need to swim with dolphins, just once. We are all mammals.